Roadside lights tend to be either large ungainly structures, such as the “saw horse” type used near road construction, or small and quite weak handheld types which are easily portable but not easily seen.
However, when stopping beside the road, a law enforcement officer, a stranded motorist or a road worker has a number of needs which an emergency light or work light should meet.
Firstly the light must provide a very bright floodlight type illumination over a scene. If a car is broken down, the car needs to be illuminated. If events are occurring by the side of the road, the scene of the events should be visible, and so on.
Secondly, the light should be long-lasting. While there is utility in a brief light, such as the light provided by a smaller road flare, the illumination limitations of such short term light sources are obvious.
Thirdly, the light should serve to alert oncoming motorists. Motorists can easily ignore a light as small as a typical flashlight, or even ignore a very bright light pointed straight at them. To provide a real alert function, a light should have some “human engineering” characteristics: an alert light should be of a type which penetrates the driver's consciousness instantly.
In addition, power options on an emergency light should lend it to use, both for being charged and for being used to provide charge, under a wide range of portable/outdoor conditions. Whatever form of feet or supports are provided should allow for irregular surfaces such as road shoulders.
One example of the portable flood light may be found at http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-Rechargeable-Flash-24-LED-Work-trouble-Light-flood-Lamp-Camping-Battery-/401022281730?var=&hash=item9c1fe62519, which shows a portable light with 24 LEDs, a large battery, and a wall charger for 120 VAC charging. It can even flash as a red alternating with blue flood light. However, the device has a one dimensional hinge mechanism, cannot be used with vehicle charging systems, cannot serve as a power outlet, and most importantly does not mimic the action of a police car light bar or emergency vehicle warning light.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,857,756, Feb. 22, 2005 in the name of Reiff et al, teaches an LED worklight which has multiple power sources but is not adapted for use on an irregular surface, lacks features for emergency or roadside work, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,141 to Landamia on Aug. 8, 2000 teaches a flashlight of traditional shape with a leg arrangement to hold one end up. This elevates the weight of the batteries, seems likely to be unstable, lacks various features for law enforcement work and so on.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,777,446 to Sharrah et al on Jul. 15, 2014, teaches a portable light and head which may pivot in reference to its base but once again has elevated batteries, a narrow base, no provision for mimicking law enforcement/warning lights, and so on.
US Patent Publication No. 20150054336 to Xinfang, published Feb. 26, 2015, at least teaches a power bank which is portable and of a solid, low shape, however, it seems to have no relevance to law enforcement or emergency work due to lacking various structures, and it does not seem adapted for outdoor high stress work in terms of structural strength.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,954,980 to Bryant et al on Jun. 7, 2011 is a very interesting artistic design with LED light arrays in wings and elevated batteries in a narrow case.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,201,979 (Jun. 19, 2012) to Deighton et al is another device which lifts the batteries off the ground on legs having potential for possible stability and a light which can pivot relative to the vertical axis of the main body.
Www.streamlight.com/it-it/product/product.html?pid=284 (“E-Flood® LiteBox® HL™”) (sic) teaches a light having an array of LEDs and a reasonably low rectangular body with a handle on top. It does not teach having the light sit atop the body, and the light only pivots in one dimension. In addition it lacks features for use by road-side, camping, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,263 to Conforti et al on Aug. 21, 1984 teaches a rechargeable wall mounted flashlight.
It would be advantageous to provide a very bright light for emergency use, for camping, for shop work, road work, car work and the like, which is bright, long-lasting, truly portable, and easy to manufacture.
It would further be advantageous to provide a light having a very durable case with feet for use on uneven road surfaces, structural reinforcement to the case, 2 or 3 dimensional swivel mounting between the case and the floodlight so that the light can be aimed as desired even if the case must be placed in a disadvantageous posture and so on.
It would further be preferable to provide a light which would serve as an alert to oncoming traffic that an event requiring caution was in progress, and that would trigger driver's automatic reflexes regarding the appearance of colored blinking lights.
It would yet further be preferable to provide a light which would act as a portable power source and could be recharged by a variety of methods, including standard 12V/30V/42V automobile electrical connectors and standard building AC current (115 VAC US or other quantities such as 240 VAC in nations using higher voltages).
It would yet further be preferable to provide a light which has convenience features such as smart switches indicating charge levels in use, multiple flood light power levels, and so on.